ABSTRACT
Every assertion about harm entails some assertion about consent. Or, more precisely, within a position, an assertion about harm entails some assertion about the actor’s consent to incur the harm; and, within a position, an assertion about consent entails some assertion about the harm. Ordinarily, that thesis would seem counterintuitive. It would seem that consent must be ascertained precisely because it is something distinct from harm. Our task in the next few chapters will be to explore that thesis as a cornerstone of the formal structure of liberal rights discourse. Before linking the two concepts, however, we will first consider what is meant by ‘consent’.
